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Jobcentre Plus

I apologise for leaving in the middle of my hon. Friend’s speech, but I was in the quorum of an all-party group. We have all had to leave the Chamber for that purpose. I encountered exactly the problem that he is talking about when they shut the Dursley job centre in my constituency, which was done against my better judgment. I discussed it with the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who is now the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. The issue was that the alternatives were that people could travel to Stroud, Yate or Gloucester. Anyone who knows Dursley will know that some people would never normally travel from there to those places. People regularly say how disadvantaged they feel, particularly as they want to get back into work. They feel that they are being punished just because they happen to be in a place that no longer has a Jobcentre Plus office. I am glad that my hon. Friend raised those points. There is a serious issue in rural areas: people who are no longer in work are doubly disadvantaged because they have not got a job and they have not got a service—